Tuesday, June 13, 2006

[Edit] It appears the Ducks have re-signed uberDuck Teemu Selanne to a 1-year extension. Selanne is 8 goals away from his 500th career goal; it will be nice to see him get it in an orange-and-black (!) uniform.

Speaking of which, June 21st is supposed to be the date of the new uniform and logo unveiling. I don’t know how much I will be able to comment (I will be on a boat for most of the latter half of June; I don't know if I will be posting anything between June 17 - 29 or so), but I’m sure it will be available for viewing online.

As for these playoffs, here are a few lessons to consider:

Off the top of my head, were there any two more additive teams around the trade deadline than Edmonton and Carolina? Roloson, Samsonov, Weight, and Recchi were among the biggest four names moved. I doubt trade deadline activity dies based on this year’s results.

Depth is the name of the game in the playoffs, in all positions. Edmonton and Nashville look to be two teams that could not overcome an injury to their top netminders, whereas Anaheim and Ottawa to some degree managed better (and Carolina, though Gerber is more lazy than injured). It seems a second netminder, a seventh defenseman (Buffalo), or another scoring forward (Rangers) are likely to be pretty critical for a lengthy playoff run.

Higher goal scoring might be the product of poorer teams letting in more goals, not because the game is improved. Note that in rounds 2-4 of these playoffs, there are 5.42 goals per game (compared to regular season’s 6.05). A lot of this comes from PP production; rounds 2-4 saw 1.61 PPG per game (compared to the regular season’s 2.07), even though the number of PP opportunities remains about the same.

Over at Battle of Alberta, Sacamano is taking his gig to Europe. Hitting Blogger since September 2005, his worst post would still be this site’s best. I almost want the NHL to expand to jolly old England just so I can read a little more about toeing the hubris line. Fortunately, he leaves behind what will still be the best set of team-bloggers in the Oilosphere. Best of luck, Sac.

Andy Grabia and mudcrutch have noted a preference of NBC telecasts to CBC and particularly Bob Cole. I can’t comment on him too much, as I don’t get to see CBC in the postseason, but I will say that even if we do get a better telecast, for me to find something in the realm of “postgame reaction” means going online and looking it up. ESPN’s NHL Tonight is sorely missed.

I think the league still has a lot of way to go towards ‘selling the game’ on its own on-ice merits. Seemingly, we need more Game Ones and less Games Three/Fours. However, you cannot fault players for prioritizing winning at this stage more than entertaining. The league just needs to find a way to have both priorities coincide better, so that the SCF doesn’t just become another year of “Who will be this year’s Calgary Flames?” In other words, winning should hopefully someday become more than just smothering puck movement, lining up along the blueline, and chipping the puck off the glass. Someday chances will be traded once again, I hope.

I don't know what Teemu's making next year yet, but I suspect 'discount' is right. I think this will be Anaheim's first legitimate hometown discount also, in the sense that Selanne could earn more elsewhere.

Last year doesn't count as Teemu wasn't particularly sought after by other clubs, and S. Niedermayer was more about brotherhood than Duck pride.

$3.75MM is what I read + bonuses, although I'd like to see those detailed because I thought that they weren't allowed.

Postgame reaction in the playoffs has to be the Score, in Canada at least-they show the press conferences. If I was setting up a dream hockey network, it'd be Ron MacLean hosting the show, with Cuthbert and (I hate myself for writing this) Neale calling the game, MacLean and Hrudey between periods and a post game setup just like the Score with MacLean, Ludzik and Hrudey.